Why E3 Still Matters After All These Years - Article
by Ben Burnham , posted on 01 July 2015 / 4,603 Views
Being a gamer growing up in the 90s and the 2000s, it had always been my dream to go to E3.
I’m not sure entirely when I started becoming aware of it. My earliest memories of the legendary trade show were probably the pictures I’d seen in gaming magazines of Sega’s massive E3 showing in 2000. That was, more or less, the Dreamcast’s last big hurrah. It came complete with a massive stage and Space Channel 5 Dancers making their frequent rounds upon it.
E3, especially back then, was an event all about excess. Its chaotic, over the top, anything goes nature had to be a bit of a nightmare for journalists who were there to do some actual reporting, but it was likely nothing short of The Greatest Thing Ever for regular people lucky enough to have an industry contact that could get them in.
The show has unquestionably calmed down since then. It was majorly restructured in 2007-2008 to become a far smaller, invite-only industry event in Santa Monica, before reverting back to its original format in 2009 and remaining that way until the present day, albeit without being quite as excessive as it was in its heyday.
It was a telling experiment, the results of which proved that even in our ever-growing Digital Age the famous Expo remains just as important to the gaming scene as ever, despite how expensive it must be to organize a show of this magnitude each year. Arguably, given how much the press conferences in particular are scrutinized, and looking at the huge success of the PS4 so far, it feels like E3 plays a larger role than it ever has in influencing consumers’ perceptions and determining the winner of the console war.
I feel it’s the show’s iconic nature that’s responsible for it continuing to resonate so strongly with the public. People who don’t ever go online to watch game reveals or read game journalism websites or magazines still tune in to the press conferences, which are often broadcast on television and on multiple websites. There are, of course, several other game-driven trade shows a year, but none attract the same media-spanning coverage that E3 does.
We have in fact gotten to a point where a bad E3 showing can be disastrous for a company. It’s difficult to forget E3 2013, where Sony so effortlessly and definitively struck back at what gamers saw as the Xbox One’s then-restrictive policies. Sony’s showing at that E3 seemed to strike such a chord with gamers that even though its library hadn’t featured a major assortment of exclusives, and despite the incredible popularity of the Xbox 360, Sony had still managed to claim a dominating lead over the Xbox One. And even with Microsoft reversing the controversial policies that had been so poorly received, and even after bringing out the big guns like the Halo’s and the Gears of War’s, the PS4 seems to be unstoppable.
It’s impossible to definitively say whether the Xbox One’s struggle to compete and catch on was entirely due to that fateful E3 showing, and it’s certainly true that their system isn’t entirely bombing, with it competing favorably with the Wii U: another console which has had its share of underwhelming E3s and has fared pretty poorly as a result of them. But it’s hard to believe, at this stage in the game, and with Sony once again knocking E3 2015 out of the park with long-awaited announcements like Final Fantasy VII and Shenmue III, that the Xbox One or especially the Wii U will ever truly compete.
Speaking as someone who has been a major follower of E3 for well over a decade - someone who has eagerly awaited each of the Big 3's press conferences months in advance, who has read and listened to countless pieces of feedback both from the industry and from gamers on message boards and even gamers I’ve talked to in my personal life - I feel it is sometimes overlooked quite how large an impact it has on our industry.
I fully believe, for example, that it set the stage for Sony to outright dominate this generation’s console war, and after E3 2015 I expect the show to remain as much of an industry fixture, if not more so, in the years to follow.
Video gaming is an expensive hobby. While there are some out there who can afford to buy every video game system on the market, most people have to make a choice between one system or another. And one thing that is inescapable to a person making that choice is a console’s sense of momentum. If one were to compare the PS4’s E3 2015 showing to the Wii U’s, I think most people would agree that one system had a distinct sense of momentum, while the other seemed to be clearly on its way out. Even if the person making the decision didn’t actually watch either conference, widespread gamer and journalist reaction will have left a clear impression, and I’d be stunned if console sales following E3 2015 don’t continue to reflect that.
Is the incredible influence E3 has become over consumers’ buying choices a good or a bad thing? It’s a difficult question to answer. While it’s scary to think that simply putting on a good show may be such a big part of a company’s success in this industry, I think it also serves to remind all those who create in the gaming sphere - from console manufacturers to even your average developer - that nothing can be taken for granted.
It doesn’t matter if you have the most dedicated fanbase imaginable, that fanbase still needs to be given reasons to be excited about a particular game, or a piece of hardware. Sony struggled for much of last generation to fight off the negativity of the PS3’s early E3 reveals, and Microsoft appears to be fighting a similar battle this time around.
The incredible response E3 has garnered this year should reinforce the notion that E3 is more than just a flashy trade show and a headache for journalists. It’s an iconic and incredibly influential aspect of the gaming landscape, one that gamers look towards and expect the best from. And I’m sure it’s one that, even with our ever-growing emphasis on digital communication, will remain an important facet of gaming for years to come.
I would never have thought, as a little kid eagerly diving into E3 coverage, that years later I’d be writing content for video game websites. The Expo was larger than life to me back then, and it’s one that even now, about a decade and a half later, I’d still describe as a monumental showing of all that is gaming culture. Seeing each company putting on what should be their best and delivering surprises so great that the audience cheers in amazement is something that I think the industry needs to have, and it’s something that I hope continues for a long time to come.
More Articles
E3 week is my favorite week of the year (its also the week of my birthday so thats a plus).
One of the main reasons for E3's immense popularity and influence on the videogame industry is its place in the annual software / console cycle. During the first half of the year as the holiday season winds to a close, things quite down and then start to build up again slowly to an eventual fever pitch where E3 sets the tone and builds momentum for the 2nd half and ensuing holiday cycle and beyond.
This is why E3 has the power to make or break a home console as it has often done, starting with the very first E3 in '95 where SEGA's "surprise" launch of the Saturn was announced, and practically doomed the console from the start.
Twitch had 21million unique viewers, and youtube had over 8million.... add in the other various small streaming sites, that probably add up as well.... then all the Press at E3, that go back and write news articles for gameing sites. Plus at E3 gameing news, usually goes beyound just ending up on some gameing site. Its alot of publicity, it has the power to sway public perception.
It's a week that the whole gaming world looks forward to and a poor showing certainly can hurt. I'm still recovering from that shit house Nintendo Direct....
I feel like this needs to be posted: FF7R reactions, 4hours worth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2ubxpEMr3o
